I am feeding a quality kibble to our 7 month old boy. It suits us at the moment with young child and everything else and so far suits the dog. I am always a sucker for extra"treats" - have tried split antlers - been assured quite safe?? - now trying air dried windpipes - I'm not sure whether any of these are worth it or not - I have had successful dogs in past who I think never had extra chews and survived perfectly OK. I will look at raw feeding when it suits. I understand it is ok to feed e.g.raw chicken wings. so my question is general tips as to whether these additional chews are beneficial or harmful, whether good/bad for teeth etc. I have tried all sorts of nylabones and to be honest my dogs have never shown much interest. Any comments/tips welcom
Many people on here choose to avoid feeding anything that's too hard to dent with your thumb nail, believing it to be potentially damaging to the dog's teeth. Other people feed antlers with no problem. Most chews need careful supervision, because they can easily cause blockages if swallowed. No, chews are not necessary to complete a dog's diet, but they can create enrichment and stimulation for a dog. A lot of us use frozen kongs extensively for this purpose. You generally start the dog off with a very tasty filling, unfrozen, until your dog is hooked, and then start freezing them and reducing the value (which generally means the caloric content, too). I use their kibble, soaked and with a small tin of sardines added. One tin of sardines is enough to fill around eight large kongs and four medium ones, so I make a batch and freeze them to hand out over the following days. If I'm going out for dinner, they will each get a pile of frozen kongs instead of their dinner in a bowl. I know it's nutritionally sound, as it's just what they would normally eat, it just takes them much longer to get through, and they have to work at it which tires them out. Kongs are not 100% without risk, but the risk is so small that I'm happy to leave them with the dogs unattended. There may be some benefit to the dog's teeth from having chews, but you should really be brushing your dog's teeth daily, whatever you feed him.
We use a variety of chews. Harley loves antlers, fish chews and kongs of varying flavours. She also has the odd raw rib or other raw meaty bone. I find them useful to keep her mentally stimulated.
We use a lot of different chews, Rawhide knots, Bully Sticks, Nylabone, Sterile Bones, Antlers etc. Real antlers are expensive and very hard, and get lost in our yard sometimes. I found a couple of brands which were nylon bones with ground antler. The dogs like them, they are softer, and cheaper. They are going to be our go-to long lasting chews in the future. Bully Sticks and Rawhide are only good for an hour our so with our "Power Chewers". We also use stuffed Kongs and some similar products. Only the black or red Kongs and a few similar toys survive. Many pretty tough looking toys are destroyed by our Lab/Beaver crosses. Fortunately they both seem to just chew them up and leave the remains on the floor. Sometimes it looks like we have been running a wood chipper in the house.
I don't think chews are necessary, no. Particularly if you clean teeth anyway. Dogs enjoy them, and they provide entertainment, for sure. I don't tend to use chews much at all - I don't think antlers are safe, neither do I think nylabones are safe but they will seem perfectly safe right up until the time your dog gets a broken tooth. Bully sticks, fish skin chews etc last no time at all and no matter what brand I buy give my dogs runny poo. So I just stick to kongs and teeth cleaning. I recently bought dried calimari rings, beef pizzles, and venison rawhide because I have a young puppy and giving her things to chew helps in her management, but I can't say I was impressed with the short time they lasted, and certainly didn't enjoy picking up runny puppy poo.
Julie, The only chew that didn't give Mole a funny tummy when he was a puppy were the Millie's wolf heart dried lamb skin - they come in a big bag of chews and he loved to chew on them with no explosive results! Every other chew gave him a bad tummy until he was 6 months old! He's a power chewer and I think giving him a chew settles him!
yep i used them for Rory and his dodgy belly they were great but they ran out and i couldn't get any so I experimented and found another company near to me who did thing like roasted lamb and vensions bits venison sausages and all sort of things which look foul but dogs love. They have helped and the products are great and the man who runs the company is very helpful and understands dogs with dodgy bellies. He knows his ingredients and makes stuff in small batches so it always very fresh. I find giving them something to chew is very civilising it makes them happy too.
Millies Wolfheart did great chunky fish bars, they were great for our dogs, and especially frozen when Benson was teething. I am not sure if they still do them. Ditto above with the lamb skin chews.
Chicken wings no. Choking hazard. Chicken quarters yes. I'm wary of antlers now that I got some from a farmer. They are very hard. i had to used a power chop saw to cut them. I give him dried beef tendons. $5 a pound for a 6 week supply. Keeps his teeth pearly white.
I fed raw chicken wings to mine as pups, but they wouldn't last any time at all now they're fully grown. They get chicken quarters, turkey drumsticks, rabbit portions (including the head, yummy), pork ribs.... Although, no chicken or turkey at the moment, as I'm cutting back on some things to see if it helps my Willow's skin, which can get a bit dry.
We let Homer chew on antlers as well as a nylabone he also carried tennis balls around. This resulted in his canine teeth being quite worn down before we noticed and stopped him gnawing. unfortunately anything softer such as a raw hide chew didn't last long and gave him tummy troubles. He gets frozen chicken wings and bones from our lovely butcher.
Raw chicken wings are fine. Different dogs will have different chewing styles. My dog Obi chews before he swallows, so he is totally ok with smaller items like chicken wings. He'll move them round in his mouth and crush up the bones with his back teeth before swallowing. If anyone's dog won't do that (crush the bones first) then it'd be better to use larger pieces.
Tilly's canine teeth are worn some, but she is 10-1/2 and the vet is not worried about them. She says that real tennis balls are abrasive also. Our dogs mostly play with tennis balls but do occasionally chew them also. Based on the cost, and Tillys worn teeth, I don't think I will buy sheds again, but will stay with the shed flavored nylon bones. They are much softer than the real thing. None of our dogs have ever had an upset tummy from Rawhide or Bully sticks, (or much of anything else) so I guess we are lucky in that area. Sensitive stomach and Labrador is an oxymoron with our dogs. The only problem with Bully sticks is how much they cost and how quickly they disappear. $2 worth of bully stick is about 15 minutes, and that is the Costco bulk price.
